Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelle Baldwin.
Hi Chelle, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Our oldest daughter, Rosie, was diagnosed with Autism and Apraxia of Speech by the age of three. When she was nine and transitioning to middle school the school system did extensive testing to verify that she still qualified for Special Education services. The psychologist pulled me aside to inform me that the testing showed that Rosie had an intellectual disability as well as the previous diagnoses. She explained that people with her disabilities have difficulty finding employment once they age out of the school system and if they are lucky enough to find a job many struggle to keep the job. She also informed me that females have an extremely high rate of sexual abuse. At that time I had a baking business making high end custom cakes. Rosie liked helping in the kitchen when she could. I decided to take that business and modify it to make it accessible to people with little to no training in baking or the arts. I changed the name to SweetAbility to reflect the reason for the business, to focus on what we can do instead of what we can’t. Over several years I modified the menu and procured equipment needed to run a larger scale business. We were able to build out a commercial kitchen large enough to house SweetAbility’s production area and have room for other food artisans to rent kitchen space as needed. I was able to transition SweetAbility into a nonprofit 501c3 as well. SweetAbility’s mission is for people with disabilities to have fun, create, and be empowered in an inclusive work environment. We have been in our new space for a little over a year now.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Transitioning the high end cake business into a model that would employ people with disabilities and those who have little to no experience with baking wasn’t difficult but it did require a lot of time to come up with a menu that would offer an opportunity for success for people with limited skills. Acquiring the space and the build out the commercial kitchen was a rollercoaster of elation, and frustration. It took twenty-two months after acquisition of the space to get it completed so we could move in which was about thirteen months longer than I have anticipated it would take. We were trying to grow the business but we were limited by the small kitchen area in our mother in law apartment that we converted into our bakery space with no way to determine when we would be able to tell new clients we had the capacity to produce higher volume orders. Being stuck in limbo was extremely hard emotionally and financially.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I never set out to run a baking business. I got a BFA with a focus on furniture design and fabrication. I was a cabinet maker for several years and then went back to school to get a massage therapy license. I was a massage therapist just shy of thirty years and kept a woodshop in our basement to make things as needed. Baking has been my stress reliever since I was twelve years old and my mom showed me how to make chocolate chip cookies. I made sweets every year for my massage clients as an appreciation gift. Friends and clients seemed to really like what I was creating for them so when one of my best friends was facing a second bout of cancer, and all financial burden that comes with the treatment, I decided to sell them along with other sweets in an attempt to earn some extra cash to try and take a chip out of my friend’s medical bills that were rolling in. That lead to the extreme cake making businsess which ultimately got turned into SweetAbility. Cakes are still on the menu but they aren’t extreme cakes. We do make killer cookies, brownies, lemon squares, scones, and a lot of custom items for corporate gifting and events as well as for individuals.
What matters most to you?
I am most concerned with the world and how people experience it. Having a child with disabilities opens your eyes to the inequities and injustices that are pervasive in our society. Not just for people in the disability community but across the board. I can’t tackle every inequity, so I chose to focus my time and energy on creating an opportunity for people like Rosie who might not otherwise get it due to a disability. We are all about focusing on what we can do and having fun while we do it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sweetability.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetabilitybakery/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Swe2eat
